LOS ANGELES Federal authorities have temporarily shut down a troubled immigrant detention center and moved hundreds of detainees to other facilities, officials said Tuesday.

The center, located in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, houses about 450 immigrants who have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and are facing deportation.

It was closed so authorities could “carry out preventative maintenance” and make modifications, ICE said in a statement.

The agency refused to provide details about the maintenance work and did not say how many detainees were moved. The transfers, which ICE characterized as temporary, began last week and were completed Monday.

The detention center is one of several nationwide to come under scrutiny from immigrant and civil rights groups.

Last summer, a transgender Mexican immigrant with AIDS being housed there died while in custody. The family claimed the immigrant was improperly denied medical attention, a contention officials rejected.

In addition, a lawsuit filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union was aimed at stopping immigration authorities from forcibly drugging deportees. The suit cited an incident at the San Pedro facility.

The facility lost its accreditation in August after failing to comply with mandatory standards. ICE said the problems were quickly fixed and did not prompt the transfers.

Citing agency policy, ICE has declined to release the inspection report by Alexandria, Va.-based American Correctional Association or to elaborate on why the facility failed the renewal inspection, done every three years.

Detainee attorneys were outraged at the temporary closure, saying they weren’t given advanced notice of the transfers.

“This is an extreme violation of detainees’ rights,” Neils Frenzen, a University of Southern California law professor, told the Daily Journal.

ICE said it doesn’t make notifications about transfers beforehand because of safety and security reasons. It said attorneys were notified afterward.

The agency acknowledged some of the transfers over the weekend after receiving media inquiries.

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